OT: Hey Eurotrash, the Arabs Beat You to It

[Jim Thompson]

On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 15:00:44 GMT, Bob Stephens
<stephensyomamadigital@earthlink.net> wrote:

[snip]

Two of my pet hatreds:

Some idiot with a harelip around 1978 mispronounced mnemonics as 'numonics'
and now I see it everywhere including college textbooks.

The other one is the spoken use of 'peripheral'. 8 people out of 10 say
'peripheal' these days.

Oh yeah, then there's 'nucular' and 'simular'. ARRRGH!!!


Bob

"Nucular" is the in-way to say it right now... infuriates BOTH the
EuroTrash AND the American Leftists at the same time ;-)

But I'm going to switch to "EuroPeons", since "EuroTrash" already has
an established definition ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

 

[Richard the Dreaded Liber]

On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 15:01:35 +0000, Dirk Bruere at Neopax wrote:

Bob Stephens wrote:

On 5 Jan 2005 02:11:56 -0800, bill.sloman@ieee.org wrote:


There are two conflicting processes working here.

People who misuse a word look like idiots to everybody who knows the
accepted meaning, but if the idiots can drag in a sufficient number of
other idiots, their perversion of the original word changes the
accepted meaning.

"Prestigious" is the classic example - the Complete Oxford still lists
it as meaning deceptive or illusory. I still worry about the
educational level of people who use the word as if it is related to
"prestige" in its second sense, involving (good) reputation, but they
no longer rate as idiots.

John Woodgate probably knows even better examples.
----------
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen


Two of my pet hatreds:

Some idiot with a harelip around 1978 mispronounced mnemonics as 'numonics'
and now I see it everywhere including college textbooks.

The other one is the spoken use of 'peripheral'. 8 people out of 10 say
'peripheal' these days.

Oh yeah, then there's 'nucular' and 'simular'. ARRRGH!!!

Very glamorous and fascinating.

This is the most unique opinion I've ever heard! Very unique! Very unique
indeed!

;-)
Rich

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Christian HOSTELET <christian-
spamanti-.hostelet@free.fr> wrote (in <41dcdf17$0$407$636a15ce@news.free
..fr&gt about 'OT: Hey Eurotrash, the Arabs Beat You to It', on Thu, 6 Jan
2005:

On 06/01/2005 05:11:36, John Woodgate wrote:
argentum(silver), aurum(gold), hydrargyrum(mercury), cuprum(copper)

Aluminum and tantalum form a condensed list. (;-)

It's not fair to cite the Latin names; we are using English here.


In SCI.electronics.design ? SCI. like Science.

Then you use the scientific words could it be Latin, French, German or
English

When was the last time you used the word 'hydrargyrum' in any scientific
text in a modern language?

Here names are defined in the endeleďev periodic table of elements (and
some of them were not known to the Romans )

You want to use 'eka-silicon' and 'dwi-manganese' as Mendeleev did?
--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only.
The good news is that nothing is compulsory.
The bad news is that everything is prohibited.
http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Also see http://www.isce.org.uk

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote (in
<pan.2005.01.06.04.38.26.884500@att.bizzzz&gt about 'OT: Hey Eurotrash,
the Arabs Beat You to It', on Wed, 5 Jan 2005:

I don't thik the romans discovered iron, for that matter.

The Roman culture lasted from about 800 BC to about 450 AD. This
embraces the end of the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The Romans
didn't discover iron; it had been known since antiquity from meteorites
but could only be processes with great difficulty. It appears that iron
smelting was discovered in Jordan around the 8th century BC. At that
time, it wasn't a Roman colony, of course.
--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only.
The good news is that nothing is compulsory.
The bad news is that everything is prohibited.
http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Also see http://www.isce.org.uk

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that mc <mc_no_spam@uga.edu> wrote (in
<41dc204b$1@mustang.speedfactory.net&gt about 'Pedantry Re: OT: Hey
Eurotrash, the Arabs Beat You to It', on Wed, 5 Jan 2005:

"Wein bridge" -- No, it's "Wien bridge." A major textbook (Malmstadt
and Enke, I think) got this wrong in the 1960s and it's been wrong in a
lot of places ever since.

Two authors with German names got it wrong? Maybe they had too much wine
in Vienna. (;-)

Of course, technically "ice cream" (which is now considered perfect
English) was a similar error. It is not cream made from ice. It is,
and was originally called, "iced cream" (frozen cream, or cream mixed
with ice).
It was originally called 'hokey-pokey'.

--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only.
The good news is that nothing is compulsory.
The bad news is that everything is prohibited.
http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Also see http://www.isce.org.uk

 

[Richard the Dreaded Liber]

On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 09:19:11 +0000, Daniel Haude wrote:

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 14:55:32 GMT,
Bob Stephens <stephensyomamadigital@earthlink.net> wrote
in Msg. <tqyi7lv115w2.19bx188wq5bph$.dlg@40tude.net

Now *That* is my brother's pet peeve. Something is either unique or it
isn't, no modifier required. I sometimes torture him by saying "effectively
unique" or "presumably unique" just to watch the veins stick out on his
neck

Recently I heard this sentence from a German advertising art director:
"Mir gefällt dieser besser. Der ist irgenddwie uniquer."

Roughly translated: I like this one better. It is somehow more unique.
With the -er appended to signify the comparative (in German, the
comparative is always formed with -er).

I would have like to kick that guy out of my office just for that sentence
(there were many more like it) if I hadn't been about to earn a handsome
sum of money from him.

Yes, it is morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Rich Grise]

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 08:21:28 +0000, John Woodgate wrote:

I read in sci.electronics.design that mc <mc_no_spam@uga.edu> wrote (in
41dc204b$1@mustang.speedfactory.net&gt about 'Pedantry Re: OT: Hey
Eurotrash, the Arabs Beat You to It', on Wed, 5 Jan 2005:

"Wein bridge" -- No, it's "Wien bridge." A major textbook (Malmstadt
and Enke, I think) got this wrong in the 1960s and it's been wrong in a
lot of places ever since.

Two authors with German names got it wrong? Maybe they had too much wine
in Vienna. (;-)

Of course, technically "ice cream" (which is now considered perfect
English) was a similar error. It is not cream made from ice. It is,
and was originally called, "iced cream" (frozen cream, or cream mixed
with ice).
It was originally called 'hokey-pokey'.

And what about "buildings"? After they're done with construction, wouldn't
it be a "built"?

;-)
Rich

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 20:12:09 GMT, the renowned Richard the Dreaded
Liberal <eatmyshorts@doubleclick.net> wrote:

On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 09:05:44 +0000, Daniel Haude wrote:

["Followup-To:" header set to sci.electronics.design.]
On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 08:42:37 -0500,
Jon Yaeger <jono_1@bellsouth.net> wrote
in Msg. <BE0158FD.13E96%jono_1@bellsouth.net
President Bush and Rumsfeld were sitting in a bar.

A guy walks in and asks the barman, "Isn't that
Bush and Rumsfeld sitting over there?"


[...]

I first heard the joke with a dentist instead of the woman and I liked it
a lot better that way. More subtle.


The way I heard it, they were riding a camel in a parade. After the
parade, the owner of the camel took it to the camel lot[0] to sell it, and
the camel lot guy offered him a pittance. The owner said, "Hey, this camel
is very special! It has two assholes!" The lot guy says, "Huh?" And the
owner says, "Yeah - didn't you see the parade? Every time this camel
turned the corner, everyone said, 'Hey, look at the two assholes on that
camel!'"

Cheers!
Rich

[0] pun intended, albeit lame.

The way I heard it, the guy was riding a rented camel around Tel Aviv.
When he got back, he corrected his wife when she referred to the camel
as "she". I know it's a male. How do you know, she said? Well, all day
long I overheard people saying "Look at the schmuck on that camel".



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

 

[Bob Stephens]

On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 20:20:08 +0000, John Woodgate wrote:

I read in sci.electronics.design that Rich Grise <richgrise@example.net
wrote (in <pan.2005.01.07.20.03.59.344837@example.net&gt about 'Pedantry
Re: OT: Hey Eurotrash, the Arabs Beat You to It', on Fri, 7 Jan 2005:

And what about "buildings"? After they're done with construction, wouldn't
it be a "built"?

No; 'building' in that sense is a gerund (a sort of noun), not a present
participle (a sort of verb). That's why pedants insist on saying 'No-one
noticed MY leaving early.' instead of 'No-one noticed me leaving early.'

Not to be overly pedantic, but what is this romance you have with the word
pedant? In an average year I usually come across this word 1.6 times. A
quick Google search on 'pedant Woodgate' yielded 33 hits.

Just curious,

Bob

 

[Bob Stephens]

On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 22:35:29 +0000, John Woodgate wrote:

I read in sci.electronics.design that Bob Stephens <stephensyomamadigita
l@earthlink.net> wrote (in <mmgjd5yv02tm$.1se4vdzzskobo$.dlg@40tude.net
) about 'Pedantry Re: OT: Hey Eurotrash, the Arabs Beat You to It', on
Fri, 7 Jan 2005:

Not to be overly pedantic, but what is this romance you have with the
word pedant? In an average year I usually come across this word 1.6
times. A quick Google search on 'pedant Woodgate' yielded 33 hits.

Just curious,

Almost bizarre. (;-)

You will probably find that I used the word six times and had it used
about me the rest of the times. I do like to be precise, but in a real
context, not an ivory-tower one, and I try not to be pedantic.

I would say, 'That will stop me going to London tomorrow', but in a
formal report I would perhaps write 'That prevented my going to London
on the next day.'

Some of the hits you got were from sci.lang.translation, where REAL
pedantry occasionally intrudes from the grammar newsgroups, and I do
tend to use less-common words on suitable occasions because it helps
people whose first language is not English to improve their vocabulary.
For the benefit of any Americans reading this, there ARE a few such
people in the world. (;-)

I suppose I'm overly sensitive on this issue. My ex-wife - though a dear
girl in many respects - over used the word 'ointment'. I had to let her go
of course 8->




Bob